The New York Post's Kyle Smith describes Unbroken as "a cinematic scrapbook", drawing its scenes from previous films including Memphis Belle, Chariots of Fire, Life of Pi and The Bridge on the River Kwai.

But the difference, Smith maintains, is that this film is "more a series of similar events than a story, and lacks an underlying message except that torture hurts."

Judge the truth of that for yourself. What is undisputable is that the events involved may be similar - but they are all similarly remarkable. And for this reason, if no other, the film will be a success.

Jolie - who got to know the hero of her tale well - may have focused on the war experiences, but she also had plenty to work with in the sporting realm, given that the 19-year-old American's fast-finishing performance in the 5,000 metres, where he finished eighth, brought him to the attention of the watching Adolf Hitler, who, speaking through an English interpreter, shook hands with "the boy with the fast finish".

Zamperini was not the only finalist on the day in Berlin upon whom the impending War would have a terrible impact. The gold medallist, Finland's Gunnar Hockert, was killed while fighting on the Karelian Isthmus in 1940 and the silver medallist, fellow Finn Lauri Lehtinen, donated his Olympic 5,000m gold medal from the 1932 Games to a Finnish soldier who fought with honour in the same area where Hockert fell.

Louis Zamperini with Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress turned director who brought his remarkable life story to the big screen in the film Unbroken ©Universal Studios

But, even to have reached the Berlin Olympics in 1936 was a remarkable achievement for a young man who had had to struggle to establish himself in United States society after his parents had emigrated from Italy to New York, where he was born, and then moved to Torrance, California, when he was two.

The Zamperinis spoke no English, and Louis was an easy target for bullies at his school. His father taught him to box in self-defence - and by his own admission, Zamperini adopted the tactic given classic form in the quote attributed to the Llanelli and British Lions rugby union coach Carwyn James - "Get your retaliation in first."

In an interview with University of Southern California (USC) News shortly after the publication of his 2003 autobiography Devil at My Heels: A World War II Hero's Epic Saga of Torment, Survival, and Forgiveness, published by William Morrow/HarperCollins, Zamperini recalled: "I was beating the tar out of every one of them. But I was so good at it that I started relishing the idea of getting even. I was sort of addicted to it."

Soon he was hopping on and off trains and getting involved in scrapes which left him on one occasion with a kneecap hanging off.

Not ideal behaviour for an athlete - but that, under the harsh direction of his elder brother, Pete, is what Zamperini soon became as he channeled all his aggression towards the track.

At Torrance High School he ran against Pacific Coast college champions in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Zamperini set an interscholastic mile world record of 4min 21.20sec which stood for 20 years, winning by 25 yards.

When the "Torrance Tornado" graduated, he was invited to train for the 1936 Olympic team at the USC track; he subsequently entered USC on a scholarship. Zamperini set a national collegiate mile mark of 4:08.3 that stood for 15 years, and in 1940 he ran an indoor mile in 4:07.6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Despite his prowess at the mile, however, Zamperini decided to go for a place in the 5,000m at Berlin as the US field for the 1500m was crowded with talents including Glenn Cunningham, who won the silver in Berlin. At the US trials in Randalls Island, New York, in intense heat which saw several runners including co-favourite Norm Bright collapse, Zamperini produced a sprint finish to tie with the US record holder, Don Lash, and thus become the youngest American Olympic qualifier ever in that event.

He told USC News about his preparation for the 1936 Games. It was not textbook.

"I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich," he said. "Here I was, leaving Torrance, going on a train to New York City, going on a boat to Germany. This was more exciting to me than making the [Olympic] team. And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers."

By the end of the trans-Atlantic voyage he had put on 12 pounds. But he still managed an eye-catching finale to take eighth place in the final in 14:46.8. "It was quite a sight," he recalled. "Though I'd been behind, I sprinted the whole last lap, running it in 56 seconds after three whole miles. The crowd was going nuts."

Finland's Gunnar Hockert, who was to die fighting for his country during World War Two in 1940, wins the Olympic 5,000m title at Berlin 1936. Louis Zamperini finished eighth, but caught the eye of Adolf Hitler with his fast finish ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

One of Zamperini's room-mates during those Games was the sprinter and long jumper who left them with four gold medals - Jesse Owens. "He was a prince of a guy, a sweet, humble man," Zamperini recalled. "The coach told him to keep an eye out for me because I was, you know, a bit frisky - and they were letting us go out into the city at night."

Unfortunately - or maybe fortunately - Owens was not on the case every minute (after all, he had Olympic history to make) and the frisky 21-year-old almost got himself shot after getting drunk opposite the Reichstag and then deciding it would be a good idea to climb up a flagpole and steal a Nazi flag.

He decided to climb back down the flagpole when guards began shouting and firing into the air, although after saying he had only wanted a souvenir to remind him of his wonderful time in Berlin, he was allowed to take the flag.

(Who knows? Perhaps the Zamperini story was going through the mind of Australia's multi-Olympic swimming champion Dawn Fraser during the 1964 Tokyo Games when she attempted to steal a flag from outside the Emperor Hirohito's Palace. She too was apprehended but then given the flag as a gift.)

That Nazi flag was seen by O'Connell when he visited the man he was studying to play at his home in Los Angeles.

"I could just interact and engage with him," O'Connell told BBC News on the eve of the Unbroken UK release. "He got his scrap book out and I went through his highlights. He had an incredible sense of humour.

"He never considered himself superhuman, or extraordinary. He just presented himself as a normal human being that had endured a lot."

After discovering Christianity following a Billy Graham rally, Louis Zamperini became an inspirational speaker where his theme was often forgiveness ©Moonchurch










By the time Zamperini died, the film commemorating his life was finished, and O'Connell had met him for a third time. "It was quite celebratory," O'Connell said. "But of course I had no idea at that time that it would be our final meeting, someone like Louis you just assume is going to be around forever."

Anyone could have been forgiven for thinking that way. After all, Zamperini had already died once before - at least, according to official sources.

In 1943 he was listed as Missing At Sea after his B-24 Liberator plane crashed into the Pacific without any obvious survivors following mechanical problems during a search-and-rescue mission. A year and a day after his disappearance he was listed as Killed In Action, and President Franklin D Roosevelt sent a note of condolence to his parents.

Eight of the 11 crew died in the crash. Zamperini, who was a bombardier, pilot Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips and tail gunner Francis "Mac" Macnamara survived the impact, and strafing from Japanese planes as they floated on a life-raft, living on birds, fish - and small sharks - which they caught.

In his autobiography, Zamperini writes how the sight of an arriving plane was "probably the most emotional moment of our lives, three grown men, tears running down our faces because we knew we'd be rescued. Man, it was great. The plane - it looked like a B-25 - circled. We waved our shirts and screamed.

"In return we got machine-gun fire."

He goes on to explain how they all hung below the raft to avoid the bullets.

"My Boy Scout leader had told me that water would stop bullets after about three feet," Zamperini wrote. "He was right....I could see the bullets pierce the raft only to slow and sink harmlessly. We weren't hit.

"When it was safe, Phil and Mac tried to get back in the raft. They were so weak I had to boost them both."

The strafing continued for almost half an hour. Finally the plane dropped a depth charge under them - but it failed to explode.

Macnamara died after 33 days. "We slipped him overboard, a burial at sea," Zamperini wrote. After 47 days, the two survivors landed in the Marshall Islands - and were picked up by the Japanese Army.

British actor Jack O'Connell recreates the scene where Louis Zamperini spent 47 days in the Pacific Sea after the plane he was travelling on was shot down during World War Two ©Universal Studios

After his liberation in September 1945, while he was in a Red Cross mess in Yokohama on his way home, Zamperini was interviewed by a New York Times reporter seeking human interest stories.

The reporter refused to believe Zamperini was who he said he was, insisting that Zamperini was dead. He was only convinced when the American-Italian produced his only available ID - a Silver Life Pass to watch games at the USC.

Zamperini's rescue made the front pages of both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, and he was given a hero's welcome upon his return stateside.

"I must have lived two lifetimes in that six-month period," he recalled. "I was invited to a million parties. At Warner Brothers, John Ford filmed an all-studio party for the boys coming home. I got to dance with Maureen O'Hara. Any bar I went into in Hollywood, I never had to buy a drink."

His parents had tried returning the national life insurance they had collected upon his "death", but the Government wouldn't take it back.

There are only hints in the film about the later part of Zamperini's life, when he was driven to drink by visions of taking revenge on his tormenters, only freeing himself after becoming a born-again Christian following a Billy Graham rally he attended with his wife in Los Angeles in 1949.

With Graham's assistance, Zamperini became a Christian inspirational speaker, with a recurring theme of "forgiveness".

In 1950 he visited Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, where many war criminals were imprisoned, and he embraced those who stepped forward and recognised him, later telling CBN News that he expressed forgiveness to them and some of them subsequently embraced Christianity.

In 1984, Zamperini carried the Olympic Torch during the run to the Los Angeles Games.

And in January 1998, four days before his 81st birthday, he ran a leg in the Olympic Torch Relay for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, not far from the POW camp where he had been held. While there, he attempted to meet with his chief tormentor during the war, Corporal Mutsuhiro Watanabe (played in the film by rock star Miyavi), who was never brought to justice. Watanabe refused to see him.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £8.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.